Merced County passes 19K total reported COVID-19 cases. Valley ICU bed availability 0%
The Merced County Department of Public Health on Tuesday reported more than 19,000 novel coronavirus cases have been identified to date countywide since the pandemic began nine months ago.
That’s nearly 2,000 new infections in the last seven days. A week ago, total cases tallied 1,955 fewer at 17,111.
Tuesday’s 223 new laboratory confirmed positives pushed the county’s running total to 19,066 known cases since the first local infection was reported by the Merced County Department of Public Health in March.
No new Merced County deaths were confirmed Tuesday, and the number of total local deaths remains at 248.
Additional cases also contributed to the county’s still-growing list of active outbreaks. Since the holiday weekend, five more workplace outbreaks were added.
Active outbreaks tallied 67 on Tuesday. New locations since the county’s pre-Christmas update include: Davidson Residential Homes in Merced, the Highway 59 landfill, Torres Adult Residential facility 2, Madhu Kris MD in Merced and Dr. David Baba optometrist in Merced.
Three or more cases linked to a workplace within two weeks constitutes an outbreak at most locations. Outbreaks are cleared when no further infections are traced back for two weeks.
Total cases will undoubtedly grow until a COVID-19 vaccine is widely available for the general public. But mitigating the number of new, active cases so that they stay low is a priority of public health officials.
In Merced County and across much of California, such efforts have been challenging as case numbers climb to new record highs over the past several weeks. Over 570,000 of the state’s 2.16 million total cases during the 10-month pandemic were reported in the past two weeks, according to the California Department of Public Health.
Active cases in Merced County decreased slightly by 46 cases to 3,633 on Tuesday. Cases are deemed active if they were laboratory confirmed within the past 14 days.
Despite Tuesday’s improvement, active infections are still far higher than numbers seen during summer’s surge, when active case counts never passed the 3,000 mark.
Hospitals remain strained statewide
High active infection counts locally and statewide led to an extended stay-at-home order being issued Tuesday, as strained hospitals teeter toward becoming completely overwhelmed.
Counties like Merced in the San Joaquin Valley will remain subject to the orders until the region’s ICU bed availability reaches or surpasses 15%.
Valley ICU capacity remained at 0% on Tuesday, as did Southern California.
Until ballooning cases fall and hospital capacity improves, counties in impacted regions must close bars and wineries and cease in-person dining, among other state-mandated restrictions.
Reaching that level of improvement could prove more difficult due to the holidays. Gatherings during every holiday this year have led to a subsequent case spike. Local and state health officials have issued warnings against gathering during the sequence of Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years holidays.
Already the statewide total for COVID-19-positive patients in hospital beds is nearing 20,000, including more than 4,200 patients in intensive care units.
In Merced County on Monday, 16 ICU beds were occupied by COVID-19 patients, according to the most recent state data. Just three of the county’s ICU beds were free.
Merced County’s top health official has said the difference of just one bad night of infections could plummet ICU capacity in Merced County to zero.
County Public Health data Tuesday reported that 51 COVID-19 patients are hospitalized within Merced County. That’s an improvement of two patients since Monday.
Deaths follow the worst cases of COVID-19 hospitalizations, and fatalities in California are approaching 25,000. State officials have recorded an average of more than 230 deaths a day over the past two weeks — nearly 100 higher than the peak moving average during the summer surge.
No new deaths of Merced County residents were traced to the virus on Tuesday. But 16 additional fatalities were reported over the long Christmas weekend, raising local lives lost to the pandemic to 248.
Merced County still in purple tier
The state’s latest update to county reopening tiers showed little change on Tuesday.
Most counties across California, including Merced, remained in the most limited purple tier on account of the virus’s continued surge. Over 99.5% of the state’s population is subject to the tier’s strict nonessential business closures.
Only Humboldt County improved on Tuesday to the second most stringent red tier. The county also resides in Northern California — the only of the state’s five regions not impacted by stay-at-home orders. The region accounts for less than 2% of the state’s total population.
Although Merced County is still in the purple tier, critical data used for tier assignments showed small improvement on Tuesday.
New daily cases per 100,000 residents decreased to a 43.7 adjusted average from last week’s 44.6. Testing positivity, meaning the percentage of positive tests compared to overall tests during the last seven days, improved to 12% from over 13%.
While metrics show signs of heading in the right direction after weeks of worsening data, there is still far to go before Merced County advances into the next tier. New daily cases must be brought down to seven or fewer and positivity must decrease to at least 8%.
